by placing primary responsibility for food safety on the industry itself, FDA intends to dedicate its resources to providing technical expertise, setting and fostering compliance with food safety standards, responding to food safety problems should they nevertheless occur, learning from problems and modifying protocols as needed.

Jaffe says the board, which put Burzynski on probation from 1994 to 2004, is "under tremendous pressure to take away Burzynski's license" because of negative publicity that Burzynski has received in recent years.

FDA will discuss the proposed rules aimed at updating nutrition information and serving size requirements on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts labels to provide consumers with information that could be used to maintain healthy dietary practices. The meeting will be held June 26, 2014

In May 2012, the White House instructed the FDA and other federal agencies to immediately begin implementing a new "digital strategy" aimed at making governmental information more readily and easily accessible to the public.

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Open APIs would hypothetically allow people to access the raw data FDA puts out through its various databases-approvals, adverse event reports, recall notices, etc-and repurpose them, potentially making them easier to use or more enjoyable to read.

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"DIGITAL GOVERNMENT:BUILDING A 21st CENTURY PLATFORM TO BETTER SERVE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE"

“From an FDA standpoint, we want to engage in smart regulation, (which) means knowing when to regulate, and how to regulate,” said Jeff Shuren, the director of FDA's device center. “We're trying to provide greater predictability, and clarity. And we're trying to get out of the way,” he said, citing the agency's decisions to “deregulate scores of technologies” from apps to medical-device-data-systems.

For the first time in more than a decade, the FDA was mulling over making significant changes to the Nutrition Facts label (pdf) found on just about every food item sitting on grocery store shelves around the nation. More than five months later, the agency is still hearing vehement support from a number of advocacy groups and vicious dissent from several major food associations, and much of it is about one subtle but crucial proposed addition: an "added sugar" label.

The FDA has been outgunned and overmatched for years as a rising tide of imported food has found a place at the U.S. dinner table. For budget reasons, only 1 to 2 percent of food imports are physically inspected by the agency. Congressional funding has lagged, and consumers continue to become sick.

When it comes to fighting antibiotic resistance, Richard Carnevale of the Animal Health Institute, which represents the veterinary pharmaceutical industry, wonders, “Are we putting more resources into this than need be?”

The US FDA has set emphasising the benefits of QbD, traceability and risk based manufacturing facility inspections as strategic priorities for the next four years in document published for consultation this week.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is proposing to revise the Nutrition Facts label that must appear on virtually all packaged foods in the United States. The agency's proposals are strong, urgently needed, and likely to make an important contribution to consumer behavior. But I believe they don't go far enough — additional labeling requirements can do more to influence food choices, reduce obesity, and promote health.

“Today’s decision allows the FDA to openly declare that a particular animal drug is unsafe, but then refuse to withdraw approval of that drug,” wrote Judge Robert Katzmann in his dissent. “It also gives the agency discretion to effectively ignore a public petition asking it to withdraw approval from an unsafe drug. I do not believe the statutory scheme can be read to permit those results.”

The F.D.A. has issued a toothless voluntary guidance document for the industry, which requires no action to reduce antibiotic use and will therefore do little to nothing to stop the spread of antibiotic-resistant superbugs.

FDA silence about its own investigations is discretionary, not required. When the public and President Obama were upset about contaminated peanut butter, the agency fell over itself to talk about its diligent investigations into Peanut Corporation of America. Beyond the limelight, however, small enforcement matters that millions don't care about are routinely hidden because the agency's culture is more comfortable with not having to explain itself.

FDA has been outgunned and overmatched for years as a rising tide of imported food has found a place at the U.S. dinner table. Because of budget constraints, ordinarily only 1 to 2 percent of food imports are physically inspected by the agency at the border each year.